


Break Free

by Wicker



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Dean Winchester, F/M, Hunter Castiel, Hunter Gabriel, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-22
Updated: 2014-10-08
Packaged: 2018-02-18 09:07:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2342915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wicker/pseuds/Wicker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Angel pulled at the soul as it fought him desperately, in pain and panic. He clenched his hand and furiously remade the righteous man, gave him a heart to hammer with blind aggression, gave him bones to tremble before God, and wove his muscles and sinew together under his terribly perfect skin. Then he clothed Castiel in the box under the ground, and listened to him scream six feet beneath the air he needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Role reversed AU where Cas is a hunter and Dean is an angel.
> 
> "You don't think you deserve to be saved, do ya, Cas?"
> 
> Cas and Gabriel are hunters and when Cas dies to save Gabriel, nobody expects him to come back a few months later with a green eyed angel on his shoulder.
> 
> (Title is from Dave Matthews Band ["Break Free"](http://www.metrolyrics.com/break-free-61606-lyrics-dave-matthews-band.html) I figure if Castiel has a musical taste, it might fit with some thing a lot less hard-rock than Dean's tape collection. Actual Recording: <http://youtu.be/mjQVAnXZ1ik>)

The Angel pulled at the soul as it fought him desperately, in pain and panic. He clenched his hand and furiously remade the righteous man, gave him a heart to hammer with blind aggression, gave him bones to tremble before God, and wove his muscles and sinew together under his terribly perfect skin. Then he clothed Castiel in the box under the ground, and listened to him scream six feet beneath the air he needed. 

Castiel Novak would survive, of this much Dean was certain. And he had to regroup, tally the losses from his unit's desperate foray into hell; If they hadn't been so unforgivably late, Castiel wouldn't have been broken. 

The anger that welled up in him at how long it took to rescue one simple and beautiful soul from hell was noticed by his superiors. 

 

He found himself ordered to shadow the younger hunter, and it was immediately problematic. Cas cowered behind a counter, holding his ears, and screamed at the vibration as it shattered everything around him. Dean had only said his name. The hunter fled from him, and Dean left as well, worried that something hadn't gone right.

His attachment was immediate, and dire. 

 

From then on, Dean followed Castiel Novak as his shadow, his compass pointing to the sound of his voice as the mortal man stumbled on his road to home.  Dean knew the human tongues as effortlessly as he knew the chemical structure of Oxytocin, but in his two thousand years of watching humans, he'd seldom felt so attached and involved. He had seen his soul, seen what what he was beyond the demon taint, and written his name there.

 

The vessel he chose surrendered to him after the miracle of his healing, and he soaked into his freckled skin, his green eyes, his sandy hair, and instantly felt at home. Not in this man's house; with the medical bills of premature heart problems, alcohol and pill bottles, and a few stripper's cell phone numbers taped on dirty napkins to the fridge. Dean buried the man's soul deep and left in his flesh. 

Dean blew open the barn door as soon as he'd secured his vessel and used his legs for walking. It was his first time striding around in a mortal's body for a thousand years, and he wondered quietly whether he was doing it right when Castiel's stare was eclipsed by the double barrels of a shotgun. The salt showered through his thin t-shirt and lightly ruptured his skin. Dean healed before he even bled from the wound, and grinned. He sincerely enjoyed testing his power. The electricity he brought with him grounded in the wires of the building and shattered the bulbs hanging above his head.

"Who are you?" Castiel's eyes were wide, staring, and bright.

Dean smiled softly, resigned. He'd hoped that Cas would recognize him. "I'm the one that grabbed you, raised you from the pit, Cas." 

"Thank you, then." Cas plunged a bone-hilted knife to the hilt in one blow. Dean was mildly proud of his strength and certainty, and a little sad to disappoint him by not dying. He pulled it back out of his chest, freckled with traces of his vessel's blood, and Castiel's eyes went wide. Of course, that left Bobby behind him, raising an iron bar.

Cas hadn't betrayed a thing on his face, but there was always the reflection in his eyes- and Bobby's intent was plain enough he may as well have been screaming. Dean reached back and folded his fingers around the metal, then turned and placed his hand on Bobby's cheek. He could see how he terrified the man, how frightened the old hunter was for Castiel and his Gabriel, and he made sure he fell softly, onto the floorboards in a deep sleep. 

Castiel was having the realization that nothing he did all could harm the man in front of him, and he was frightened, fighting to keep it hidden. "Well then.. _what_ are you?" 

"I'm an angel of God." 

Cas squinted at him. "No such thing. Bullshit." 

Dean prevented himself from making a joke, barely. "I'm sorry, I'm real. Sorry about Pamela." 

He actually flinched. "You blinded her."

"I tried to warn her, she shouldn't have tried to look at the real me." 

"What's this form, then?" Castiel looked down his chest at his holey, too-tight shirt. Dean knew he'd chosen perfectly then, when the hunter had a hard time pulling his eyes away from his body.

"A vessel." 

"You're  _possessing_  him? That's what demons do." 

"He was more than willing." He put his hand on Castiel's arm, where his handprint was burned into his skin.

Cas was shaking. "Why. Why'd you pull me out?"

"We need you, Castiel."

"Why me? Why not.. someone else? Why not my Dad?"

Dean remembered how his soul had fought him with every step. "You don't think you deserve to be saved, do ya, Cas?"

He could see right into the core of Castiel Novak, but he still wasn't prepared for the way he buckled under those words. Dean did, however, see the punch before it slammed against his invulnerable jaw, and broke Castiel's hand.

The hunter gasped and stumbled, and Dean grabbed his hand and healed him before he could even fall.

Dean released him a moment later, trying not to get lost in his skin. He hadn't anticipated how it would feel to touch his vessel to Castiel's skin, how he himself had suddenly felt so flawed and unclean.

Cas was glaring at him. "Why?" His eyes boiled with unshed tears. "I know it's not altruism."

"God has a plan, Castiel." Dean hoped he sounded certain.

Castiel's dry laughter echoed in the barn.

"Go to your brother. Call me when you need me."

"What do I call you? Angel 911?" 

"Heh." He smiled, pained. He had been hoping that Cas would just know. "Dean Winchester." 


	2. Chapter 2

 

Castiel was so unspeakably relieved to have Gabriel and his car back again. He hunched down in the passenger seat, in his trenchcoat, his standard issue hamburger on his lap, in the Impala. It took Gabe about forty minutes to start digging.

"I _tried_ , Cas, I really did. I wouldn't let Bobby burn you, I stuck you in a box and I looked.. _everywhere_ for a way."

"It's fine. Stop apologizing, I know you tried." He knew he'd found his big brother in bed with some lady who thought he was the pizza man, but he also knew Gabe had problems with saying "no" to anything that could make him feel better for five minutes. The last four months had probably been really hard on Gabe's liver and kidneys, at least. From the look of the woman he was shacked up with, he probably had herpes too. 

The silence hung for a bit.

"So, this is awkward." Dean was suddenly just sitting in the back seat, in the center.

Gabe jerked at the wheel and the car started to skid. " **Jesus, fuck!** " He managed to keep it from going any further than halfway off the side of the road and slammed the brakes as much as the car would allow. The Chevy's struts wailed softly before it came to a rest beside the road.

Cas found himself pushed down in to the wheelwell, his burger in his lap, teeth clenching around a half-consumed bite of bread and lettuce. He looked up and over his shoulder at Dean, and swallowed his mouthful dry.

Dean grinned at them from behind them both in the back of the car, relaxed.

Gabe was already bristling. "You.. don't **do** that to people."

Cas crawled back onto his seat. His eyes darted down to the angel's magnetically tight jeans straining over his thighs, and he grumbled an agreement with his brother.

Dean was the very picture of confidence. "Oh, I'm very fucking sorry."

"You shouldn't curse, you're an angel of the lord," said Castiel, as he wiped his mouth of ketchup.

"Oh, okay, sure. Gabriel, when are you going to tell your brother about your "training?"

Cass glanced over at Gabriel, who turned back suddenly to face the steering wheel. "Come. On. I was _going_ to."

"Anyway, you need to stop doing that shit, pronto."

Cas opened the door and got out of the car.

Gabriel huffed. " _Great_ job, man. You're really taking this angel thing seriously, and just.. wrath everywhere, right?"

"Sweetheart, if I was raining wrath on you, you'd know it." Dean was teasing, obviously. It was strange how Gabe and Dean hardly got along. With their personalities, Cas would have thought they'd be a sure fit.

Cas walked away from the car, hands shoved into pockets uselessly.

Thankfully, only one of them followed. Dean didn't use the car door, just went from inside the Impala to outside of it. 

"Shouldn't you be flying? Not... crunching after me in those boots?" Castiel pulled out his pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

"Nah. Wings don't work that way. Well, they could, but _nah_." Dean shrugged and watched him light up with a passing interest.

"Are you going to warn me about lung cancer?" He took a long drag and looked at the stars.

"Nope," Dean joined him in looking up. For a moment, Cas wondered if the angel saw the same distant lights that he did. Dean broke the silence. "You won't live long enough."

"You can tell that?" He turned to squint at Dean, whose face was in the dark but his eyes still somehow green and glittering.

"It's the seals, Cas. You aren't stopping them. We're running out of time. Lilith still eludes you."

"I'm doing everything I can. So's Gabe."

"Well, your "everything" is coming up short, Cas." The smile was gone from his voice. He was looking at the hunter now, in the dark. "And your brother's corrupted himself."

"Shut your mouth." Castiel gave the angel his fiercest look.

Dean touched his trenchcoat and then held it in his fist. "You don't fear me."

Cas was indignant, and pulled back as much as the angel's grip would allow. "You show up here like this is some big party," he pushed at Dean when he couldn't break away. "You can't play with us like this. This is my life."

Dean shook him. The ash fell from his cigarette and the red ember was enough to reflect in the angel's eyes, enough to freeze Castiel's breath in his throat. His tone was low, and dangerous. "The life we gave back to you. If you don't do what we ask of you, I'll throw you right back where I found you, so help me."

Cas screwed his eyes shut and held still until the Angel let him go. He turned away from him and took a deep drag of his cigarette, bluffing with all his might that he wasn't shaking with hell's memory, fit to burst from it. Dean was back to looking at his stars. The hunter looked back at the car, seeing Gabe's shadow behind the wheel.

"I'm sorry." Dean finally spoke, and crossed his arms. 

"You.. where do you get off?" Castiel gulped mouthfuls of air, knowing his voice sounded strained and empty. "Don't you think I'm trying?" 

"Yes, I do think you are trying." He sounded sad. "I need to go. Stop Gabriel from drinking demon blood, or we'll have to."

This time, Cas was looking right at Dean when the angel vanished. It was impossible, the way he left. Just a sound and he could see right where he had been, and feel the slight breeze of air rushing into the empty space Dean left behind. 

He trudged back towards the car slowly, listening to the cry of an owl from miles away. He crawled into the front seat of the impala beside his brother. Gabriel looked at his crestfallen face and his hand stopped on the key in the ignition. "Is he coming?" 

"No. Of course not." 

"Your angel is kind of.. not really that angelic." 

"Yeah, I know. Can we go now?" 

"You're not going to yell at me about the training?" 

"I've known." He looked at the road in front of them as a deer wandered into the headlights, stared, and then wandered off to the right. 

Gabriel finally started the car. "Why aren't you angry?" 

"Oh, I'm angry." He sounded tired, and he knew it. 

"Look, it helps people. Most of the time, the possessed person... they're mostly okay."  He drove slowly at first, maybe waiting for an outburst from Castiel. 

Cas looked out the window at a very distant light on some farmhouse's porch. "Dean isn't telling me everything, but if he says it's a bad idea, you _need_ to stop." 

"I get it, it's weird, ok?" 

"Not just weird, Gabe. _Bad._ " 

His brother grumbled a little under his breath and kept driving. Cas shut his eyes in the passenger seat and tried to get some sleep before they hit town in the morning. 


End file.
